With club-captain Cesc Fabregas’ manoeuvring for a move away, and other recent contract developments (or lack of, I should perhaps say); Arsene Wenger looks to be losing his leaders at an alarming rate.

William Gallas, one of the most experienced and outspoken players at Arsenal, is now officially out of contract and looks almost certain to leave with media speculation suggesting Lorient’s Laurent Koscielny is the man to be brought in to replace him.

But despite an impressive season at Lorient last year, at 24, the French-Polish defender has still yet to gain either international or Champions League experience and is therefore unlikely to fill any sort of leadership role at Arsenal just yet.

And now Sol Campbell’s future at the club (after having surprisingly re-established himself as the team’s on-field leader in Gallas’ injury-enforced absence) now also looks in serious doubt with the 35 year old revealing recently that he’d “spoken with Neil [Lennon] about moving to Celtic” and “been impressed with what he had to say”.

Sol had looked certain to extend his stay at Arsenal, with his White Hart Lane performance in particular supposedly having convinced Wenger of his worth. And it wasn’t only Wenger that Sol had won over; from the comments he made last month, Robin Van Persie was obviously equally impressed with Sol’s contribution:

"Sol is one of those characters you need in your squad. If someone is easing off he tells them straight away. He says: 'This is not the way to do it, sharpen up otherwise it's not going to work."

"I've enjoyed playing with him very much, I love his character. His character is great, he's a winner and he knows how to win."

"He's honest, in a Dutch way almost. He is very direct and I love that. In Holland we are used to people who are direct and say what they think. He is like that."

Of course, were Fabregas to leave - or perhaps even if he stays - the fans and the boss alike might well favour Van Persie himself to succeed as club captain, now that Fabregas’ actions have brought into question his loyalty and commitment to the club.

Maybe Arsene even had that in mind when handing Van Persie the club-captaincy for the final games of the season; if ‘Wenger knows’ after all, he most likely knew of Fabregas’ wishes well in advance of the midfielder’s public remarks.

Van Persie’s recent revelation of his ambitions for next season would also have filled Arsenal fans with optimism for a Van Persie led Arsenal; in response to Wenger comparing the Dutchman with Lionel Messi he stated:

“I want to go through next season where I score 30 goals and have 20 assists” adding that he has “a massive desire to get to the level of Messi, Rooney and Ronaldo. And I’d rather do it today than tomorrow.”

He also seemed to be declaring his loyalty to his club when he dismissed a move to Real Madrid:

“Van der Vaart has said that, if Arsenal don’t sign him, I’ll have to join him in Madrid. But I don’t think that is for me. Real is a fantastic club but the speed of managers and players coming and going is frightening. It must give them neckache, looking who is coming in and going out. They have this philosophy: You did not win anything this year. There is the door and here is a couple of million to buy you off. Ready for the next purchase. I prefer the philosophy of Arsenal”.

Which was all looking exceptionally rosy for Arsenal fans until he added "and Barcelona”.